I am a Creative Director, Brand Strategest and Designer based out of San Francisco, CA.

May 31, 2017

Flexibility vs Consistency

I read an interesting article on valedictorians yesterday. The article studied those that graduated first in their class through the next 20 years that followed. Many were by the standard norms “successful”. They had good jobs. They were generally in power positions. They made good incomes.

But they also weren’t the leaders we might perceive. They were unlikely to be entrepreneurs. Unlikely to be millionaires. Unlikely to found companies based on innovation. By contrast, the successful people in these respects were more likely to have a 2.9 GPA.

There was a quantitative deduction done on this study to analyze this trend. And frankly it makes sense. Those that were valedictorians proved they could be consistent in their executions. Consistent in their thinking. Consistent in following a laid-out process.

But those who had the lower GPA’s tended to forget traditional learning. They were more commonly disruptors. They were less likely to go with the flow — preferring their way to the mainstream way. Their approach was flexible — worrying less about grades, and choosing to go real-world experience instead. They took an entrepreneurial approach to learning.

Think about this as it relates to your brand. Is your brand consistent? Is it checking boxes? Is it following a path laid in front of it?

Or is it flexible? Is it choosing to disrupt space and make the world a bit more unique?